IT and database officer

Background

The Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA) calls upon regional organizations with a role on DRR related to their mandates, priorities, and resources, including the promotion of regional programmes and establish regional collaborative centers to undertake research, training, education and capacity building in the field.

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) of the League of Arab States, under the chairmanship of the Executive Bureau of the Council of Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment (CAMRE) and the Islamic Executive Bureau for Environment, jointly launched a Regional Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction on 4 March 2009, hosted by the AASTMT in Cairo.

During the Second Meeting of the Governing Board, the esteemed Members endorsed the proposed outline for a 3-year Strategic Business Plan 2011 – 2013 for RCDRR that was presented by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) of the World Bank.

The plan focuses on four clear lines of business aiming at achieving the RCDRR objectives. These four lines are: 1) Enable policy and planning for disaster risk reduction in the region, 2) expand education and training opportunities to build a culture of prevention in the region, 3) enable access to knowledge and practices relevant to the region, and 4) just-in-time advisory services.

RCDRR seeks to recruit an IT and Database Officer to work on the third business line entitled “Building Capacity to manage disaster risk and climate change data, and enabling access to knowledge and DRM practices relevant to the region.”, under the supervision of the Disaster Risk and Climate Change Knowledge Programme Leader. The Programme Officer shall report directly to the leader.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of Disaster Risk and Climate Changes Knowledge Programme Leader, the incumbent will undertake the following tasks:

• GeoNode Deployment and development: Provide technical guidance and troubleshooting to RCDRR DRI GeoNode projects. Extending GeoNode through customization or the creation of new extensions to meet the needs of RCDRR DRI deployments. Contribute to data uploading and system maintaining.
• Contribute to the installation, implementation and maintaining of Disaster loss database in the region (DesInventar)
• RCDRR website development and maintaining: Participate in all phases of the website development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, design, development, testing and deployment.
• Design, develop and maintain the RCDRR website and its database, including expert restore, library, best practices, etc.
• Participate to the other components of Disaster Risk and Climate Change Knowledge programme as needed.
• Conduct any other duties requested by Programme Leader or the Executive Director.

Required skills and experience

Education:

• Diploma of Engineer in computer sciences or related field

Experience:

• Have at least two years of experience with web development (preferably Python/Django), in database development and management and integration of databases on the web.
• Excellent knowledge of Linux system
• Experience on open source web-based map viewers and mapping tools.
• Experience working with enterprise database environments like SQL Server, PostgreSQL or Oracle.
• Web applications: from HTML-standards over browsers and their CSS-issues to Javascript libraries and HTTP calls.
• Experience with geospatial programming preferably GeoServer/GeoTools, GeoNetwork
• Familiarity with OpenLayers/GeoExt, PostGIS
• In-depth understanding of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards: Web Feature Service (WFS), Web Coverage Services (WCS), Web Map Services (WMS) and Web Processing Services (WPS).
• Ability to write technical documentation
• Strong communications skills, ability to lead trainings and give effective presentations
• Experience with design and/or cartography desired
• Knowledgeable in data management in relational database.
• Fluent in Arabic, English and/or French.